Today (Feb. 13, also the ninth day of the first lunar month), Le’an Lantern Festival（乐安花灯会） with a history of 300 years once again opens in Shishan Town, Nanhai. Foshan citizens gather together to appreciate the colorful lanterns and pray for prosperity in the new year.

Le’an Lantern Festival is one of the largest traditional Spring Festival folklore activities in Nanhai, Foshan and it is well known in the Pearl River Delta Area, which attracts a large number of people from surrounding cities every year.

Each lantern presented at Le’an Lantern Festival is made by hand through nearly 100 processes, and it has been listed in Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Projects. Different from ordinary lanterns, the Le’an lanterns are similar to a lotus in full blooming. And ornaments such as mushrooms and flowers are decorated under the lanterns. Therefore, they also have a nickname of “Baby Lantern” (meaning giving birth to a boy).

The lantern street is 2 kilometers long and it consists of Lianxing Avenue and Guidan Road, Lianxing Auxiliary Road. At the Lantern Festival, magnificent lanterns which have been handed down for more than three hundred year are hanging high in front of the stalls, and tourists are buying the fancy lanterns. Citizens with smiles on their faces come to the lantern street either with their families or friends are immersing themselves in the happy and active atmosphere.

The Le’an Lantern Festival originated from the late Ming and early Qing dynasty. Every year on the ninth day of the first lunar month, tens of thousands of tourists from all over the country will gather here to pray for a smooth new year.

(Eleanor)